Download Item:

Abstract:

A history of the waterways of the world would tell a great
part of the story of early human migration and the rise
and growth of commercial intercourse. In early days, it was
by rivers rather than by forest tracks that primeval peoples
became acquainted. Roads and canals followed as the
first artificial highways, and, finally, with the application
of steam power, came the rail-road. With the advent of
the railway, canals played a much smaller part in the economy
of transport; and throughout the world, with the exception
of the Low Countries, business men ceased to attach much
importance to the canal as a factor in the transport system.
But as time went on, and the capacity of railways in solving
the question of goods traffic was recognised to be limited,
attention was again given to inland navigation. The digging
of the canal across the Isthmus of Suez, a colossal feat of
engineering at the time, aroused the world, and set men
thinking, that perhaps, after all, the day of canals had not
passed. From that time until to-day, but more especially
during the last fifteen years, there has been a considerable
revival of interest, in Europe and in the United States,
in the question of canals and inland waterways. It came
to be recognised that it is not only in the item of cheapness
that water transport excels. It possesses other advantages.